Jesus, moral intelligence and choosing a president

LUCAS JACKSON REUTERS Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney answers a question as he debates President Obama during the second U.S. … Continued

by Valerie Elverton Dixon

LUCAS JACKSON

REUTERS

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney answers a question as he debates President Obama during the second U.S. presidential campaign debate on Oct. 16, 2012.

Those of us who follow Jesus and believe in his divinity believe that he is the human incarnation of God who is Divine Love. Jesus is also the incarnation of grace and truth. The Gospel of John says: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory; the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1; 1:14)

God is Truth. Untruth is not God. The scriptures speak of the accuser, the slanderer and this is the opposite of God. The Word teaches us to be suspicious of slanderers and prevaricators in every aspect of our lives. Jesus taught that if we abide in his word, we would be his disciples, and we would know the truth and the truth would make us free. (John 8:31-32.)

When we consider who ought to lead our nation on every level of government, especially on the presidential level, truth-telling ought to be a requirement. Consistency and integrity ought to be a requirement. How can we trust a leader who says one thing on a subject in the morning and another thing on the same subject by the end of the business day? This is the case with Mitt Romney. He will say something in public and later his campaign will say he did not mean what he just said. He will stake out a policy position, but when he is called on that position in debate, he simply says that is not my position. In the first presidential debate he did this flip on taxes on the rich and in the second he did it on the availability of contraceptives for women.

View Photo Gallery: A far more aggressive President Obama showed up for his second debate with Mitt Romney, and at moments their town-hall-style engagement felt more like a shouting match than a presidential debate.

Moral intelligence is different from cognitive or emotional intelligence. It is the acuity to perceive right from wrong, truth from untruth. Moral intelligence is a consistent integrity.

In this election, we have seen political prevarication in the extreme on the part of Mitt Romney. In the second presidential debate, Romney not only calmly lied to the America people, but he made a false accusation against President Obama in the process. He slandered the president. The president correctly said that Romney thought that an employer ought to have the right to deny coverage for contraceptives for women. Romney supported the Blunt-Rubio amendment in the United States Senate that would have given this power to employers, not only in the case of women and contraceptives, but in the case of any employee for any medicine or procedure that the employer claimed violated h/er moral convictions.

Perhaps Romney is doing some serious parsing of his words in order to mislead both sides of this issue. Perhaps he thinks that women ought to have access to contraceptives, but an employer has the right to decide not to include them in insurance coverage provided at work. The woman is free to purchase them on her own. If this is the case he ought to have said so.

Perhaps he has a bad memory, or he has changed his position yet again depending upon whose vote he wants, or the number of people listening, or the phases of the moon, or God only knows what else. In any case, his lack of clarity, his inconsistencies, demonstrates a lack of integrity, a lack of moral intelligence and a lack of truthfulness.

There is no religious test to hold public office in the United States, but we ought to allow our own religious wisdom that teaches us to be suspicious of lies and liars, our own integrity and our own moral intelligence to inform our thinking on who ought to hold the highest office in the land.

Jesus is all about compassion, for the poor, the sick and so forth. He said it is very difficult for a wealty person to get into heaven. i cannot understand a person who has more money than he can ever spend not using it to help the less fotunate amoung us. If so many are so concerned about those who “abuse” the system, why don’t we put some people to work over seeing the current system? I’ve heard of a wealthy individual who hid all of his mother’s wealth so he could put her into government housing and get her government bennefits. What about wealthy doctors who scam the medicare/medicaid system?

WmarkW

As if “Obama’s lies” results in a Google-nope.

Want to talk about the cost of contraceptives?
Sandra Fluke told Congress they cost $1,000 per year.

They’re nine bucks a month at WalMart.

persiflage

‘ In the first presidential debate he did this flip on taxes on the rich and in the second he did it on the availability of contraceptives for women’

Romney has the moral character of a Tammany Hall politician……..the man belongs in a different age altogether, when winning was the only thing that counted among national leaders. This business about his devout religiosity has been nothing but a smoke screen to hide avarice, greed and out-of-control political ambition of the first magnitude.

XVIIHailSkins

“There is no religious test to hold public office in the United States, but we ought to allow our own religious wisdom that teaches us to be suspicious of lies and liars…”

I was with you all the way to the end but then my irony radar exploded in my hands, forgive me.

thebump

If Obama’s lips are moving, he’s lying.

jamesmark39

Mr. Romney’s sole reason for wanting to be president is to satisfy his naked greed and ambition. He will say or do anything to pander to the electorate. The hubris is dizzying.

edbyronadams

The biggest exercise in truth telling was done by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson and both candidates act like they passed gas at the dinner table. You can’t get elected by telling the truth about the nation’s financial condition because people don’t want fewer benefits and/or they don’t want to pay more. The fault lies not in the stars of the party but in ourselves as voters.

nkri401

Sadly, I agree with you.

A while ago, when Mr. Mondale said something like – Mr. Reagan will raise your tax and I will raise your tax. The only difference is that I will tell you and Mr. Reagan would not.

What ordinary citizens should be offended by is the ironclad republican belief that rich people shouldn’t have to pay more on the way to balancing the budget. Tax breaks conjoined with preemptive wars and mortgage manipulations by wealthy banking financiers played signficant roles in putting us where we are today. No one in their right mind would willingly give up traditional benefits while wealthy folks enjoyed increased tax exemptions – this is a return to pure feudalism, there’s no other way to describe it.

This has not and will not result in more jobs……as though our jobs problem was as simple as giving corporate CEOs an additional million or two in tax breaks.

BTW, Reagan eventually raised taxes…………contrary to the many distorted beliefs about that sainted man.

Ultimately, everyone will pay higher taxes – let’s start with those that can afford it the most.

persiflage

I kind of feel that way about your posts bump…….just a gut level response.

haveaheart

“Moral intelligence is different from cognitive or emotional intelligence. It is the acuity to perceive right from wrong, truth from untruth. Moral intelligence is a consistent integrity.”

AKA “a conscience.”

Rongoklunk

The truth is that there are no gods. That’s TRUTH. It’s not truth that religious people want – it’s comfort and fairy stories about everlasting life with some big invisible dude in the sky. They prefer lies – who can’t handle the TRUTH.

amelia45

Well done. Romney flip-flops so fast and lies so often that he has nothing on which to hang why we should vote for him.